Welcome to class of International Marketing Opportunities by Dr Welcome to class of International Marketing Opportunities by Dr. Satyendra Singh Professor, Marketing and International Business University of Winnipeg Canada s.singh@uwinnipeg.ca http://abem.uwinnipeg.ca www.abem.ca/conference

Discovering Opportunities through Marketing Research Issues with international research Communication across cultural barriers Adaptation of research tool Secondary data Primary data Estimating foreign demand/opportunities Analyzing/Interpreting research info. Communicating with decision makers

Top 25 Marketing Research Firms (%)

Culture: Self Reliance Criterion (SRC) and Ethnocentrism SRC: one’s own cultural values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis for decisions Ethnocentrism: one’s own culture or company knows best how to do things SRC and ethnocentrism impede the ability to assess a foreign market in its true light

Factors Deriving Int’l. Demand Technology Demand latest technology to expand industrial base Build/upgrade infrastructure (e.g., tel. Firms, ATMs, ) Demand for cars, toys, DVDs… Demand , competition  Industrial Products GDP  Industrialization Product Quality Value (cost/quality) Better quality at competitive price Phones with roaming feature Define quality

Secondary Data Problem definition Availability of data No government agency, proxy, language barrier Reliability of data Too optimistic government, false data reporting—transfer of goods between countries, tax policies—match production with sales Comparability of data Old data (not up-to-date), not frequently collected, data are reported in different categories—definition of superstore, manager Validating secondary data Judgment validity—check for correlations e.g. diapers and babies

Primary Data Ability to communicate opinions Willingness to respond Must have the product, understand usefulness Willingness to respond Males, maids, prestige, socially desirable answers, suspicious character—researcher, in-store cooperation, political interference Sampling in field surveys Sampling problems, no street names, no house nos., no accurate maps, outdated tel. Directory, limited use of questionnaire/tel. method, lack of demographic details Language and comprehension Language barrier, equivalent concept e.g. def of family, literacy, back translation, conservative responses (Japan vs. USA)

Estimating Market Demand Historical data, if available Production + Import Expert opinion Poll experts—own sales managers, distributors, consultants, government officials—for size and growth Triangulation—compare estimates produced by different sources Analogy (chain-ratio method) Establish correlation between product and GDP/sales/…

Analyzing and Interpreting Research Information Cultural understanding Local interpreter Adaptive research methodology More pictures, focus group Skeptical about primary or secondary data Correlate with other sources—governments…